MINUTES before shooting Pc David Rathband, Raoul Moat called Northumbria Police from a mobile telephone as he was driven through the west end of Newcastle.

In the five-minute call taken by a police call handler he said he was out to kill Northumbria Police officers.

He said he was sorry his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart was in a critical condition in hospital, and that he would not come in alive.

This is a transcript of the call.

Raoul Moat (RM): "Hello there, this is the gunman from Birtley last night.

"What I’m phoning about is, is to tell you exactly why I have done what I have done, right?

"Now, my girlfriend has been having an affair behind my back with one of your officers.

"This gentleman that I shot last night, the karate instructor, right, now I...

"Yous ******** have been on to me, right, for years.

"Yous have hassled us, harassed us, yous just won’t leave us alone.

"I went straight six years ago when I met her and I have tried my best to have a normal life and you just won’t let up.

"Yous won’t leave us alone for five minutes.

"I can’t drive down the street without the blue lights flashing.

"Yous have stitched us up for years; you have been in court, stitching us up, so the fact of the matter is, right...

"She has had an affair with one of your officers.

"If he had not been a police officer I would not have shot him."

Call handler (CH): "Okay."

Raoul Moat: "It’s as simple as that, right?

"But the thing is, you know, it’s been going on for a while.

"I went to jail, right, I was stitched up by yous for hitting my kids which I did not do."

CH: "Right, right."

RM: "I went to jail for something I didn’t do; I could have taken a community order, right, but what happened is my Sam had a discussion with my barrister ... if I went to jail for three to four weeks ... my barrister promised us and they let us down.

"She said she would have us on a retrial and get the not guilty so that after me and Sam could live together."

CH: "Uh-huh."

RM: "Now I have went to jail, right, longer than I should have."

CH: "Hang on, hang on a minute, you’re losing me, yeah."

RM: "I went to jail longer than I should have for something I didn’t do, right? Which justified that in your own head, right?

"Meanwhile, while I’m in there doing that for my missus, right, she’s having an affair with one of your officers, right. She’s winding us up, saying that yous are going to stitch us up using him."

CH: "Yeah."

RM: "Right. And I know that he is this and that, is going to, cause he’s a multiple black belt, that he is going to kick me arse all over the place."

CH: "Right, okay, sorry."

RM: "And I have had nothing but grief ... but I have had a genuine relationship with her for six years, which is why we have stayed together, and I have gone straight.

"I have had a totally legit life with her, I have opened a business, and I have been shafted.

"You police have took too much off me over the years."

CH: "Okay."

RM: "Yous won’t leave us alone. And now yous think you can take me missus.

"Now, I didn’t mean to shoot her like that, right, that was..."

CH: "Okay, okay."

RM: "Right. He deserved it, right, but she, right ... you can run ballistics - I was altering those cartridges, right.

"That one was half the powder, that ... it was meant to get her compensation because obviously I’m not going to be around in a few days, right, it was meant to just give her a little injury so she can get lots of compensation."

CH: "Okay."

RM: "Like, for the bairn. Now that I have found out that she’s critical I’m not happy about it.

"But the fact of the matter is I’m not coming in alive. Yous have hassled me for so many years. If you come anywhere near me I’ll kill yous. I have got two hostages at the moment, right - come anywhere near me and I’ll kill them as well.

"I’m coming to get yous.

"I’m not on the run - I’m coming to get you."

RM: "You have made me unwell. Yous have made me do this cos yous just won't leave me out.

"You know, yous just won’t leave us alone, right?"

CH: "Can you confirm you have got two hostages?"

RM: "I confirm I have got two hostages."

CH: "Right, and where are you?"

RM: "I am not gonna tell you where I am."

CH: "Okay, fair enough."

RM: "I’ll call again (inaudible) don’t worry (inaudible) I have (inaudible) with yous."

CH: "Right, can you just confirm who you are? Can you give me your date of birth please?"

RM: "Yes, it’s June 17, 1973."

CH: "Right, okay then, thank you very much."

RM: "Right. I’m very sorry for what’s happened to Sam, that is not what I meant."

CH: "Right."

RM: "Okay. But I tell you something else, that this other idiot in the paper that’s saying I pointed a gun at him - you know that he’s had to, like, you know, his dad’s had to console him and all the rest of it?"

CH: "Yeah."

RM: "He was accused, right. I heard rumours in jail that he was sleeping with my Sam. Now ... I have spoke, I was talking to Sam’s dad yesterday and he said he heard the same rumours as well but he didn’t believe it was true.

"But he was definitely trying to get into her.

"So listen to me when I tell yous he was the first one - he ran and hid upstairs leaving his wife and leaving everybody else, you know what I mean?

"He did not ’stand there and let a gun point at me’ because, had I pointed it at him I would have shot him, because I believe he was getting into her.

"There’s a lot of nonsense going on behind my back while I have been in jail.

"She has changed, she’s not half changed.

"And every, every time I spoke to her and tried to be reasonable she wouldn’t let us anywhere near the bairn."

CH "Right, right."

RM: "She wouldn’t let us go up to her house, she wouldn’t discuss anything and she was taunting us with one of your officers.

"Right. Now I have had enough. I have had enough of yous.

"That jail made us unwell. I came out a different kid, you know what I mean?

"I lost everything through yous, right?

"Yous just won’t leave us alone, right?

"So at the end of the day, yous killed me and him before that trigger was ever pulled."

CH: "Right."

RM: "You know what I mean?"

CH: "Okay."

RM: "Yous are..."

CH: "We are trying to help you."

RM: "You’re not trying to help us, you’re not trying.

"Yous wanted me to do myself in and I was going to do it till I found out about him properly and what was going on - and as soon as I found out he was one of your officers I thought, ’Nah, yous have had too much from me’.

"You will get your chance to kill us, right, you will get your chance to kill us."